Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke to Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies today about the Pentagon’s strategy for keeping America secure in the tense international climate we are currently in.

The strategy was described as a “clear-eyed appraisal of our security environment with a keen eye of America’s place in the world.”

Mattis spoke for about 30 minutes with a prepared speech before taking questions from one of the school moderators.

Few questions evoked such a passionate response as one about what would happen to our nation’s military and security should the Democrats vote to shut down the government.

Mattis started off calmly, describing the thousands upon thousands of Americans that would be heading to training, deployment, or maintenance activities and how a shutdown would negatively affect them.

He spoke about men and women heading off to their weekend duties in Wyoming that will be told to go home, having wasted hours of their lives. He spoke about maintenance and critical intelligence activities around the glove grinding to a halt.

In addition to the thousands of people that will be sent home from work without pay, there will also be a large portion of military members that have duties so critical that they will be required to keep working without pay to ensure the safety of our great country.

“The submarine that was put to sea last week will still be out for three months. God bless them. The lads will not have any email connectivity so they will not even know what’s going on as they cruise quietly out there, carrying out their duties.”

Then Mattis became quite passionate with his opinion on a needless government shutdown.

“The value of the American military is grossly enhanced by the sense that the American model of government, of the people, by the people, for the people can function and carry out its governmental responsibilities. I didn’t serve in the Marine Corps for 40 some odd years, I served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Belongs to you, accountable to you. … For those out there right now in the field, at sea, the air, the ones sitting in the ready room at Andrews Air Force Base, I would just tell you that they deserve full support and we have got to come to grips with this as a nation.”

The room was DEAD quiet after this incredible and sobering answer to the question. Mattis has a way of putting things in such a way that we see the human side of our political results and the Democrats need to listen to this speech before they decide to shut the government down.